Oubliette
by Syn2
Summary: Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy, 1996, 7 hours
1. Part One

Title: Oubliette (1/2)  
  
Author: Syn  
  
E-Mail: veruca_werewolf@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Fandom: Harry Potter  
  
Content: Ginny/Draco  
  
Spoilers: OotP  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, Ms Rowling and a bunch of companies do...and they could crush me like a bug.  
  
Summary: Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy, 1996, 7 hours  
  
A/N: There's an age-old television ploy of trapping two (usually fighting) characters in a locked room and letting the fur fly. I did my own take on it (with a twist) and this is the result, though I meant it to be a lighter fic than it ended up being. Obsessive!Draco is oodles of creepy to write.  
  
Feedback: I would greatly appreciate it.  
  
****  
  
The Great Hall buzzed with sound. Shouts, good-natured joking, hushed whispers, rumors, the rustle of a dozen Daily Prophets with headlines about the escalating war--all of it humming and throbbing in the ears of Ginny Weasley as she sat in a discontent hunch at the Gryffindor table, stirring her mashed potatoes with disinterest. The activity of the four House tables couldn't break through the funk she'd been thrown into since that morning.  
  
She'd endured the most horrible double Potions of her life that morning and the day had only gotten worse from there. Not only had she melted her cauldron when she'd accidentally knocked a whole bottle of dead tse tse flies into her Speed Serum, but Snape also gave her a firm dressing down before the enter class--whose feet were all moving blurs from the spilled serum. She'd been so embarrassed that she wasn't able to concentrate in Charms and ended up completely failing the surprise quiz Flitwick had thrown on Ear-Splitting Shriek charms.   
  
Now it was all that Ginny could do to sit still and hope that the day, which was almost over, wouldn't get worse. She dropped her mashed potato-covered spoon onto her plate with a clang and rested her chin in her hand. Next to her, Hermione, Ron and Harry were all talking in excited, anxious voices and it wouldn't have taken a genius to guess what they were talking about.  
  
All the Death Eaters they'd helped catch last term in the Ministry had escaped from Azkaban last week. The Dementors had long since been removed from the island, but somehow, someway, they'd escaped and were now out there, rejoining their master. Ginny was glad she was too preoccupied to give it much thought because she knew if she did, she might well panic. Instead she focused on her horrible day and sank into a deep funk.  
  
"Ginny? Ginny? Are you listening?" Ron's voice called, breaking through her misery. She looked up, throwing her bright red cascade of hair out of her freckled face. Her brother was staring at her with raised eyebrows.   
  
"What?" she asked irritably, sitting up straight on the wooden bench. A concerned look crossed Hermione's face as she looked up from the wrinkled copy of the Daily Prophet in front of her.   
  
"Nevermind, Gin. You look dead tired...something wrong?" Ron asked in concern. She sighed heavily and shrugged her shoulders.  
  
"Its nothing. Just a typical horrid day. I had Double Potions with Snape and I had an accid--"   
  
"Look! They're saying that Bellatrix LeStrange was spotted in Oxford!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed, cutting Ginny off. Harry and Ron turned their attention back on the newspaper, leaving Ginny forgotten at their side. She had the sudden urge to leave the table and get away from everyone.  
  
She immediately pushed her plate away and got up from the House table. Harry, sitting on her right, glanced at her and frowned.  
  
"Ginny? Where are you--?"  
  
She ignored Harry's question and stalked out of the Great Hall, past the rest of her schoolmates, who were too busy talking about the recent breakout to pay her any attention. She didn't particularly care though. She just wanted to be left in peace for a few hours. Maybe forever, she thought, still deep in her funk.   
  
Her attention was on her shoes as she wheeled out of the door of the Great Hall and into the corridor. She gasped in surprise when something collided with her bodily, nearly knocking her backward. Someone grabbed her elbows and pulled her back upright and flush with a wiry chest.   
  
She blinked and focused in on the House badge in front of her nose and the prefect badge pinned above it. Dread filled her from head to toe.   
  
"Weasley," a cold voice sneered as she wrenched her arms out of his grip. Draco Malfoy towered over her, staring down his pointed nose at her. Her bad mood deepened in an instant. If there were anything that could make this day worse, it would be an encounter with him. "Watch where you're going."  
  
"I was!" she exclaimed, lying but not caring. She wouldn't give Malfoy the satisfaction of rightly telling her off. "As if you couldn't avoid me!"  
  
"Someone's in a bad mood," Draco said lazily, crossing his long arms over his chest and looking her over. She fixed her coldest glare on her face and lifted her chin at him. She wasn't going to be intimidated by the pale little worm and she wasn't afraid to show it.  
  
"You would be too if you had to deal with selfish little prigs running into you in the corridors," she said testily as the corner of Draco's lips curled upwards.  
  
"Clever," he said dryly as she drew in a breath. "What are you doing out here?"  
  
"None of your business," she retorted, going around him and heading for the stairs. He blocked the way again, putting a long elegant hand on her shoulder. She pushed it away and glared at him. "Move!"  
  
"No."  
  
"Move."  
  
"Make me."  
  
"Let me pass, Malfoy! I'm not doing anything wrong," she said, darting to the left as he stepped in her way once again.   
  
"How do I know that?" he drawled, walking backward a step as she advanced on him.   
  
"Who's the untrustworthy snake here? You or me?" she countered, pushing his arm away and ducking beneath it. He turned to follow her, right on her heels.  
  
"Point taken, Weasley," he called after her as she climbed the stairs as quickly as she could. "But you still didn't answer my question. I am a prefect after all...you're supposed to obey me."  
  
"I don't obey my own brother, what makes you think I'd listen to you?" Ginny tossed over her shoulder, hitting the second floor landing and quickly choosing the right direction to go back to Gryffindor Tower. Once there, Malfoy couldn't bother her any more, as he didn't know their password.  
  
She didn't really want to go to Gryffindor Tower, though. The thought suddenly sprang to her mind. No…what she really truly wanted more than anything was for everyone to just forget about her for a few hours. She wanted privacy, a place where she wouldn't be bothered, where she could be alone. The sounds of Malfoy's footsteps behind her told her that this wish was a distant dream. Right now, all she had to worry about was shaking him.  
  
"Because I could do something very unpleasant to you." Draco's voice was soft but it carried easily to her ears.  
  
Her insides went cold. There was no doubt in her mind that Malfoy could do something very, very unpleasant to her right here and now. She was alone. Everyone was eating dinner in the Great Hall and Malfoy hated her almost as much as he did Harry and her brother. And it was common knowledge that she'd been in on the raid at the Ministry last spring.   
  
She swallowed hard and quickened her pace, intending to find a corridor she could dart down to find her way back to either the Tower or the Great Hall. As it was, she didn't quite know where she was, which was odd. She HAD been going down the familiar corridor that led to the Tower staircase but somehow she'd ended up in a corridor she hadn't ever gone down and it looked like it wasn't traveled much anyway. There were no classrooms down this way, she knew and it showed. The corridor was narrow, the stones dirty and black, the few paintings on the walls covered in black grime that showed years of neglect. They stared at her from beneath the dirty canvas with nervous, suspicious eyes.   
  
"There's a young man following you." One of them wheezed out as she spun around another corner. She shot the portrait--a weedy looking wizard with large, droopy earlobes--a furious glance and kept walking, Draco keeping in step behind her.   
  
"Ginny..." Draco called, touching her shoulder. She jumped, her heart pounding in her chest.   
  
"Leave me alone, Malfoy!" she said rather shrilly, looking over her shoulder at him. He was smiling sharply at her. "You can't...you can't hurt me and you know it. Dumbledore would know it was you!"  
  
He snorted derisively, "As if I'd jeopardize my future for a Weasley!"  
  
"Then leave me alone!"  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"I don't know! Away! I want to be left alone!" she said with a disgruntled growl, the thought springing to her mind again. Yes, she wanted to be left alone… Confused, she shook her head and darted down another dark, narrow hallway. A cold draft threaded beneath her robes, chilling the bare skin of her legs. She shuddered and walked as fast as she could.  
  
The narrow corridor let out into a curious, circular rotunda she vaguely recognized, having turned into it once in her second year on her way to Transfiguration. She hadn't taken the time to study the small room then, but something about it caught her eye now. She walked into the middle of the circular room and looked up at the ceiling, where there was a row of small; round windows all round the room. They were dark and stars showed through the blue glass. There was one painting on the wall of a young maiden chained to a pile of rocks. Ginny moved to study it further, but Draco caught her arm once more and hauled her into the middle of the room.  
  
"You're out of bounds, you know," he said snidely, as she wrenched her arm out of his grip once more.   
  
"So are you!"   
  
"Prefects can go anywhere they want," he said forcefully, glaring down at her. "But you..."  
  
"Malfoy, why don't you just leave me alone? I want you to leave me alone! I wish everyone would leave me alone! Is that so much to ask?"  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't say that if I were you!" The maiden on the rocks exclaimed from nowhere.   
  
Ginny wheeled on her in confusion. "What?"  
  
"And don't stand there. You really shouldn't stand there."   
  
"Shut up!" Malfoy suddenly demanded the painting. The maiden looked up, pointing as best she could toward the ceiling with her chained hands. Ginny's gaze followed and she felt wonder slip over her as the moon slid into view from one of the windows.  
  
Blue light streamed into the round room from the window and then...  
  
Ginny gasped as the blue light bounced around the room and streamed in from all the windows in the round ceiling. The blue light coalesced into one shimmering beam that struck the floor directly in the middle of the room. Right where Ginny and Draco were standing.  
  
She barely had time to take it in when the solid stone beneath her feet melted and a black chasm swallowed her up. She screamed and scrambled for something to grab. Draco bashed into her side as they went and she shrieked as she fell into the darkness, tumbling end over end. Her ankle struck the stone wall and she felt it twist. On and on she fell until--  
  
Her freefall abruptly ended as she landed on something soft and musty smelling. The breath was knocked out of her and she lay there for a moment, hardly believing she was still alive. She blinked and moved her head, attempting to peer into the darkness to see where exactly she was. Something dark suddenly landed next to her on the soft, musty smelling cushion with a groan.  
  
"Malfoy?" she asked, incredulous as she sat up on her elbows, peering into the darkness at the person next to her.  
  
"Who do you think it is, Filch?" Draco spat with another groan as he sat up, the cushion bouncing and jumping as he moved. "Where the bloody hell are we?"  
  
"I-I don't know. Did the floor give way?" she demanded, attempting to roll off the cushion, feeling her way with her hands. Her ankle throbbed in protest, but she ignored it. She'd felt worse in the Department of Mysteries last year, after all.   
  
"I think so…it, it felt like a set spell or something," Malfoy said somewhere to her left. "Hey, I found the wall."  
  
"I found the floor. Swing your legs off this cushion...its solid stone." she said with relief as she stood for a moment, put pressure on her ankle and hissed in pain. Okay, maybe it did hurt.  
  
"What's the matter?" Malfoy asked sharply in a tense voice.  
  
"I twisted my ankle on the way down here," she explained as she sat down on the musty cushion once more.   
  
"Lucky you. I'm scraped black and blue. And I'm bleeding!" Draco said indignantly, shifting on the cushion and making it bounce again.   
  
"Poor you!" she snapped, her stomach in knots. She noticed for the first time how cold it was in the darkness. Goosebumps crawled up her arms and she crossed them over her chest. "At least we're safe."  
  
"I don't know about that. The hole closed after us, I felt it," he said with no little resentment in his voice.   
  
"I-it closed? After us?"  
  
"Yeah," Malfoy spat impatiently. "Thanks to you now I'm stuck in a dirty, dank, cold hole in the ground, bleeding and the only company I have is a stupid little Weasley who just HAD to go running all over the school!"  
  
"What? You followed me! I was just trying to get away from you!" Ginny hissed at him in the darkness. Her eyes were rapidly adjusting to the darkness, but she couldn't make out anything other than a darker blob amongst the shadows that must have been Draco. "If you hadn't followed me, I wouldn't have gone into that stupid room!"  
  
"Whatever. The point is, we're stuck and no one knows where we are!"  
  
"That painting--"  
  
"Is tied to some rocks. Unless someone comes into her out of the way corridor, we're on our own."   
  
There was silence for a moment and then Ginny cleared her throat. "Well...let's...explore, shall we?"  
  
"You explore," Malfoy said resentfully. "I'm going to sit here and stop bleeding."  
  
"You are such a baby," Ginny told him with a sigh, but he didn't deign to respond. "I wish we had light..."  
  
"Oh for Merlin's sake!" Draco growled. "Lumos!" Ginny expected an eruption of light to come from the end of his wand, but nothing happened. "Lumos!"  
  
"It's not working..."   
  
"How keen of you to notice. Try yours," Malfoy demanded and she pulled her wand out of her pocket.   
  
"Lumos!" Nothing. She did it again. Nothing. "M-maybe magic doesn't work down here?"  
  
"Wonderful. Bleeding, stuck in a hole with you and magic-less. Yes Virginia, there is a Hell."   
  
"Shut up, Malfoy. Let me think..."  
  
"Don't hurt yourself," he muttered under his breath as she stood tenderly on her hurt ankle. It throbbed in the cold and she resolutely ignored it, hopping around, her hands on the walls for support. She expected the stone to be as smooth down here as it had been when she'd fallen, but it was rough and pitted beneath the pads of her fingers. She frowned and kept moving, measuring the room mentally as she went. Shortly, she reached a cobwebby corner and slid down the opposite wall.  
  
A horrible smell greeted her nostrils as she neared another wall and she nearly stepped down into a hole in the stone floor. She felt around the edge of it with her feet curiously. It smelled awful.  
  
"There's a hole in the floor over here!" she said, turning her attention to Malfoy.   
  
"A hole? How big?"  
  
"Not very...I can't tell if its deep...but it smells horrible!" she said as she wrinkled her nose and stepped away from it, her hand still on the pitted and scratched wall.   
  
"Let me see..." There was a rustle of movement as Malfoy got off of the cushions across the room. There was the slight sound of him stumbling and he cursed under his breath. "Where are you, anyway?"  
  
"Er...over here..."  
  
"Oh well why didn't you say so?" he said sarcastically, making Ginny roll her eyes in the pitchy darkness. "Over where?"  
  
"The wall you're standing against...slide forward along it..."  
  
More movement and the sound of his footsteps falling heavily on the cold stone told her he was moving toward her in the darkness.   
  
"What a minute..." Malfoy said, stopping in his tracks. "There's something on the wall..."  
  
"I know, there are scratches or something--"  
  
"No...its a--" His voice trailed off as he grunted. There was the sound of stone scraping stone and then light burst into the room, blinding them both. "Light!"  
  
Ginny squinted through her eyelashes at the room, seeing Draco standing a few feet away, his hand on the wall, where a stone was depressed and above it a torch was blazing with bright yellow fire. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked around at their surroundings.   
  
The pile of cushions they'd landed on took up half the room, which was a small ten-by-ten foot room made entirely of stone. Ginny looked up, expecting to see a long, dark tunnel leading upward, but was shocked to see a stone ceiling instead.   
  
"No door." Draco said wryly, looking around, blinking rapidly to clear the dazzle from his eyes. Ginny did the same and looked at the wall beneath her hands. There was writing scratched into it and she peered at it with interest. Before she could read it, however, Draco called her attention back to himself. "Oy! Look...there's something on the wall."  
  
She stumbled over to where he was standing and looked where he was pointing. Something was engraved deeply into the wall in stately letters.  
  
"'An oubliette, dark and deep, you tumble down and here you keep. Where things are put and are forgotten, where they molder and are rotten. Less you wish to turn to bone, find the secret hidden in the stone. Escape is but a thought away, find the answer or here you will stay'," Ginny read aloud, confused.   
  
"An oubliette? I've heard of those!" Malfoy said as he nodded his head, glancing at her slyly. "It's a room with no way out but up where ancient Muggle king's would put people they wanted to forget about."  
  
"I think wizards have improved upon the idea, as there isn't even an up to get out of!" Ginny said tersely, gesturing upwards. Draco squinted at the low stone ceiling and then shrugged.  
  
"If there's a way down, there's a way up. See here, it says there's a way to get out...we just have figure it out."  
  
"Right. Its a riddle...I can do riddles," Ginny said, trying to calm herself. She glanced at Draco again and saw blood running down his forehead from a gash in his hairline that turned his blonde hair pink. "Hold still."  
  
"What?" Malfoy asked defensively, backing up a step as she advanced on him.  
  
"Just do it..." she said, gathering the sleeve of her black robes in her hand and lifting it to dab at the cut across Draco's forehead. He winced as she applied pressure, but didn't move, though he did scowl heavily down at her. "There, feel better?"  
  
"Yeah," he said quietly and then moved away from her hands. He sighed and looked up at the engraving again. "We should figure this out quickly. I don't want to be down here with you any longer than I have to."  
  
"Should have thought of that before you harassed me."  
  
"Let's not get into that again, shall we?" Draco said and then he sat down heavily on the musty, stained cushions once more. "Now, we have a riddle, we have light, we're alive and there's a way out...let's think of this quickly."  
  
Ginny nodded and sat down on the cushion as far away from him as possible, her back against the cold stone wall, her legs drawn up. She noticed again how cold it was down here and it was getting colder by the minute. Her fingers ached and her toes were numb. She curled them in her shoes and tucked them under her as much as her throbbing, stiffening ankle would allow. Draco looked equally as cold, his nose red in the flickering torchlight. His pointed, pale features were cast in shadow as he brooded, glancing occasionally up at the engraving on the wall.   
  
Ginny mulled the riddle over in her mind as she shivered, curled her hands into the sleeves of her robes and huddled on the musty cushions. There was a trick to riddles, she knew. They were so simple once you figured them out, but the trick was getting there. An oubliette was where things were forgotten, huh? If Draco weren't here, she might well enjoy the place! Merlin knew she wasn't left alone anywhere else. She thought hard, remembering all the riddles she'd ever heard, but the answer seemed just out of reach…like there was a fog on her mind.  
  
Neither of them spoke for a long while, both lost in their thoughts. She didn't have a watch and but she didn't doubt that Draco did. She didn't ask him though. An hour passed. The cold grew until when she exhaled, she could see her breath. The torch on the wall didn't even radiate heat from where it burned, as was usually the way with magical fire. She contemplated trying a warming spell, but figured it was hopeless anyway after the disaster with the light spell. Besides, she didn't want Draco to give her an 'I-told-you-so' look.   
  
Finally Draco sighed, "We're not getting anything done just sitting here, Weasley. The answer is in the stone, it says. We need to look for it. Maybe there's a loose stone like I found for the torch?"  
  
Ginny shrugged. "Sounds good to me. I can't make heads or tails of this stupid thing anyway."  
  
Stiffly she climbed to her feet, her sore ankle throbbing again. She grit her teeth and wished it to stop, but it went on hurting, as she knew it would until she could get to Madam Pomfrey. On the opposite side of the tiny room, Draco felt along the wall with his long, spidery pale fingers, pushing the stones as hard as he could. None of them budged.   
  
Ginny turned to her wall and started doing the same. She stopped when her eyes focused on the scratched writing before her. She'd forgotten about it until now and she took the opportunity to read it unmolested.   
  
"Draco...the stones!" she exclaimed excitedly, reading each scratched passage. "Other people have been trapped in here before! Listen, 'Argo Amaris, 1640, 10 hours'! 'Lady Pembridge, 1920, 4 hours'!" She turned to face Draco with a smile. "They've made a record, you see? It can be done!"  
  
"Well bully for them, but that doesn't help us!" Draco said sourly, turning back to push at the stones.  
  
"I'm just giving you hope..." she muttered, turning back to the wall to trace the pitted words with her cold fingers.   
  
"My only hope is to get the hell out of here before I'm missed," he shot back, grunting as he pushed at the stones again. "And before your Muggle-loving filth rubs off on me."  
  
"I doubt anyone will miss you, Malfoy. That would imply caring and no one cares for the wart on their knee," Ginny spat at him once more in annoyance. He wheeled on her and glared.  
  
"Shut your mouth, you poor little country girl," he sneered, his gray eyes flashing.  
  
"Make me, spoiled brat!" she echoed his statement earlier in the hallway.  
  
"I could, you know. Trapped down here, no one would know." His voice was cold and soft again and cold threaded up her spine. She'd forgotten for a moment who she was trapped down here with and what he was capable of. He hated her, she hated him and there was a serious grudge between them. She swallowed hard and pressed her mouth to a thin line.   
  
"Why don't you? Is...is that why you followed me? Were you going to get back at me?" Her eyes were huge and they bore into his as he crossed the room. She backed up against the wall, the cold stone a shock as she collided with it. Draco leaned in, one arm braced on the wall beside her head.  
  
"Maybe. Say something else and we'll find out, won't we?" There was something dark and dead in his glare, something that made her stomach drop. He meant what he said, he would hurt her and she had no magic to save herself this time.  
  
"You wouldn't..."  
  
"Wouldn't I?" He arched his eyebrow at her and she shuddered between him and the wall. "You help me get out of here, though...and we'll call it a draw. Deal?"  
  
"Deal," Ginny said in a quavering voice. He pushed away from her one-handed and turned his back on her with a cold laugh that hit her right between the shoulder blades like a knife. Shivering with fear, she turned back to the stone wall and started pushing at them, reading the names to herself. She found one that dated all the way back to the founding of Hogwarts and one wizard who had written that he'd been in there for three days.   
  
She and Malfoy worked their way slowly across the room toward the opposite wall.   
  
"Disgusting. What is this thing?" Malfoy's voice broke the tense silence between them. She glanced at him and saw he was looking down his nose at the smelly hole she'd found in the corner earlier. She'd forgotten about it too. Coming up beside him, she peered into the dark hole and wrinkled her nose in disgust. She was confused for a moment before she saw the drain in the middle of the basin.  
  
Then she laughed. Malfoy glanced at her irritably. "What?"  
  
"Its a privy pit..."  
  
"A what?"  
  
"For doing your...your business," she explained in a flustered voice.  
  
"You mean, we're supposed to...use that thing? I'm not going to the loo in THAT thing! Its, its disgusting and, and dirty!" He looked completely shocked that such an indignity had been bestowed upon him. Ginny laughed again.  
  
"If we get out of here soon, you won't have to," she said with a smile. "Of course I suppose its easier for boys...you don't have to sit down!"   
  
Malfoy just blinked at her. "I'm not discussing this with you," he said in a flat voice, then a cruel smile crossed his face. "Though I daresay you're used to such primitive conditions, living in that Barren as you do..."  
  
"It's the Burrow and we have indoor plumbing, thank you very much," she retorted, turning away from the privy pit and feeling along the wall again. She pressed every stone she could reach until she came back to the cobwebbed corner she'd finished in. She sighed and turned back to face Draco who growled and kicked the wall with the toes of his expensive black shoes.  
  
"Nothing! There's nothing!"  
  
"What about the floor? Or behind the cushions? We could move them and see what's beneath..."  
  
"Good idea," he conceded and they proceeded to move the cushions out of the way, tossing them to the side in a huge, smelly heap. They were obviously ancient and dust rose as they landed atop one another with a soft flump. They tried the stones again, pressing as hard as they could. Not one of them moved an inch.   
  
"This is ridiculous! There has to be a way out of here, the engraving said so! This isn't fair!" Ginny exclaimed, flopping down on the strewn cushions, her head in her hands. It was so cold that her shoulders shook. She wanted nothing more than to curl up someplace warm and she thought longingly of the fire in the Gryffindor common room.   
  
"Of course its not fair, Weasley! It's a dirty hole!" Draco said grouchily, pacing back and forth like a caged shark, his sharp gray eyes flitting around the room, focusing here and there. "And a bloody cold one at that!"  
  
He crossed his arms over his chest and pulled his collar up as high as it would go. He hunched his shoulders and sighed deeply.   
  
"I'm so cold..." she said for no reason in particular, just feeling the need to voice her discomfort. Draco glanced at her and paced again.   
  
"You know, this isn't how I wanted my night to go," he said in an accusatory tone, making her look up at him anger.  
  
"Don't start this again! You followed me, Malfoy!" she shot back with as much venom as she could muster. He didn't respond as he sat down next to her on the strewn cushions. She uncrossed her arms and reached for the sleeve of robes. She pulled it back and glanced at the time on his elegant silver watch. "We've been in here two hours, you'd think we'd have this figured out by now."  
  
"If its any consolation, your brothers didn't figure it out for ten hours," Draco said, bumping her shoulder with his. Ginny looked at him in puzzlement. He gestured to the wall beneath the engraving with his chin and she immediately got up to see what he was pointing at.  
  
She blinked in amazement and read aloud, "'Fred and George Weasley, 1992, 10 hours'! Those...those...bastards! That was my first year at Hogwarts and they didn't even mention it! Not one word!"  
  
"Pity. They could've told you how to get out too."   
  
"I'm going to KILL those identical ponces!"  
  
"Good for you. I'll help," Draco said gleefully. She shot him a dirty look.  
  
"Don't start in on my family again, I'm really not in the mood to hear it."  
  
"You know I couldn't resist, Weasley," he said with a shrug, lying back on the thick cushions, his head pillowed in his hands. "So there's got to be a way to get out of here if all these people plus the identical ponces could get out. We just need to think..."  
  
"We've been thinking. I've thought my head off!" Ginny groused, flopping back down on the cushions beside him stiffly, her ankle groaning and stiff. The joint felt swollen and she brought it up on her knee to examine it closely. She peeled down her frayed, second-hand sock and her eyes widened when she saw the bruised, purple skin. She prodded it with her finger and flinched in pain as the swollen skin throbbed in response. "Ouch..."  
  
"What now?" Draco demanded, turning his head to look at her. "Ouch...that looks painful."  
  
"You have no idea. And its stiffening up," she said with a sigh, then pulled her sock back up, thankful that she wasn't wearing boots because by now it wouldn't be possible to wear them. "It must be snowing outside if it's this cold."  
  
"Yeah, the Slytherin common room fire is probably huge by now," he responded wistfully, looking back up at the low ceiling.  
  
"And Gryffindor Tower is probably crowded and warm and Ron and Hermione are probably arguing. And Harry's probably caught in the middle and Dean's probably wondering where I am..."   
  
Malfoy looked sharply at her. "Thomas?"  
  
"Yeah, he still likes me but I broke it off with him at the beginning of term..." Her voice trailed off and she glanced at Draco, who had a thoughtful expression on his face.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I really don't want to talk about it with you, Malfoy," she said, holding up her hands and looking around the room once more. The torch burned steadily as she read the engraving over and over again, trying to make the gears in her mind work.   
  
"Fine. Didn't want to hear it anyway..." Draco trailed off, nestling down on the cushions. Ginny shivered and curled up too, attempting to trap as much of her body heat as she could. Her teeth chattered despite her best efforts though.  
  
An idea sprang to her mind and she immediately reeled in disgust. No way. Never! She didn't care how cold she got...  
  
But even as she vehemently attempted to dismiss the idea, she shuddered again, her body tensing up as the cold seized her. Her breath curled in the air like a ghost and her fingers ached. Beside her, Draco shuddered too.  
  
"Feel free to laugh at this suggestion, Malfoy...but my father says Muggles trapped in the cold huddle together for warmth. Because...because they don't have magic and they'll freeze to death if they don't...so..."  
  
"Are you actually suggesting that we, I, huddle with you like a Muggle for warmth?" Malfoy scoffed at her, his eyebrows rising into peaks. Ginny shrugged.  
  
"Or we could freeze to death."  
  
Malfoy pursed his lips and thought for a moment, then eyed her wearily. "Are you sure this will work? Your father isn't too bright, you know. He may have gotten this wrong..."  
  
"My father's an intelligent man!" she exclaimed and then threw up her hands. "Nevermind, it was a stupid thought anyw-"  
  
Ginny was cut off as Draco sat up and grabbed her wrist. "Just shut and keep me warm, Weasley. I can't afford to get ill and end up in hospital. Slytherin and Gryffindor have a match in two weeks, if you recall."  
  
"I couldn't forget that. Harry's been drilling us worse than Oliver or Angelina ever did."  
  
"Power went to Potter's head, I see. No surprise there," said Draco as he took a fat cushion, dusted it off and then placed it between his back and the cold stone wall.   
  
"And it hasn't gone to yours, either, hmm?" Ginny asked wryly as she scooted closer to him. He didn't flinch away when she nestled in beside him, shoulder to shoulder.   
  
"I was meant for power, Weasley! Being Captain is my right," he said haughtily, slinging his arm around her shoulders with an economy of motion. Ginny tensed and then relaxed against him, her feet folded up beneath her, her hands tucked into her arm pits.   
  
"As much as I hate to admit that, there's no denying it. You definitely were made for power. Too bad you're bound to abuse it," she declared before she could stop herself. He looked down at her, their faces mere inches apart. He smiled unexpectedly.  
  
"You have no idea how I'd use my power, Weasley," he said mysteriously and then his smile got sharper. Ginny gasped and flinched away from his hand as he laid it on her cheeks. "Are my hands cold?"   
  
"Malfoy! Eeesh!" Ginny laughed and slapped his cold fingers away from her reddened skin. "You're mean."  
  
"Don't pout at me, Red," he said almost genially, leaning his head back on the dusty, musty cushion. "So the plan is, we get warm and then we start again. There's a way out of here and we just have to figure it out."  
  
She nodded in agreement and then they both went quiet for a few minutes.   
  
"This is warmer," she said awkwardly, her cheek pressed against his chest. She could feel his cold fingers in her hair, plucking at the red strands unconsciously. The feeling wasn't unpleasant, but she wished he'd stop. The familiarity of the movement made her stomach flip-flop. She moved her head away from his fingers and glanced sharply up at him.   
  
"Nervous habit," Malfoy explained away and rested his hand on her shoulder. Ginny relaxed again and warmth spread between the shared links of their bodies. Ginny tried start the conversation again.  
  
"If you hadn't been standing where the floor melted, would you have tried to catch me?"  
  
"That's a stupid question," he said with a laugh.  
  
  
  
She lifted an eyebrow. "But a valid one. Answer it."  
  
He shrugged, lifting her head with the movement. His chin brushed her forehead. "I'm not sure."  
  
"You would have let me fall. One less Gryffindor to get in your way. Plus, you hate me," she said with a sigh and a slight smile.  
  
"Well there is that. Both excellent reasons, I might add." He jostled her a little and she felt his fingers scrape her scalp again, setting off alarm bells in her head. This time she just let him do it. It soothed her and she was too tired and cold to resist. Slowly, the long, weary, horrible day pressed on Ginny's mind. She fought to keep her eyes open, but the steady rise and fall of Draco's lungs lulled her softly into the darkness. He held her close, his fingers massaging her scalp some more. "Ginny?"  
  
She was asleep before she could respond.  
  
(end part one)  
  
**** 


	2. Part Two

Oubliette (2/2)  
  
****  
  
"Gin...Ginny..." A familiar voice crowded her skull, fighting through the aching cold and the bliss of slumber. She attempted to open her eyes, but couldn't quite make them work. Something hard poked her in the ribs. "Hey! Weasley!"  
  
That woke her. She jerked upright in confusion and blinked in the unfamiliar surroundings. Draco Malfoy sat before her, his hair in a state of dishevelment she knew he would never allow in public. He looked annoyed, his brows drawn together, his mercury eyes glaring at her from his recumbent position against the dusty cushion propped on the wall.   
  
"Malfoy...?" she started in confusion and then groaned, burying her head in her hands. The events of the night flooded back into her brain and she squinted up at Draco in misery. "Why did you let me sleep?"  
  
"I was tired of listening to you talk," he said tersely, sliding off the cushions and standing, stretching his muscles one at a time and rolling his shoulders. He didn't look at her as he yawned and lifted his hands to the low ceiling.   
  
"How long was I asleep?" she hazarded, pulling her fingers through her tangled red hair. There were great knots in it in the back, knots she was sure weren't there before she'd went to sleep. She glanced at Malfoy uneasily once more.   
  
"About an hour and a half," he said. "You snore."  
  
Her mouth fell open. "I do not!"  
  
"If that's a story that comforts you, then go with it," he said sarcastically, allowing a smile to cross his pointed face before he wiped it off and cleared his throat. "Well, we've been in here for nearly four hours and we're still not any closer to getting out. And by now someone misses us...or at least you."  
  
"Yeah, but we shouldn't wait for them to find us...I think this is our problem," she said, leaning against the cold stones and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The light was bright and inviting, even in the dim, dismal surroundings.   
  
"I was thinking while you were sleeping...and maybe there's a trick stone in the ceiling," he said casually, looking up and pointing to the stones overhead with one finger. "I mean, there's nothing in the floor or the walls, so there must be one up there."  
  
"It's worth a try, but how are we going to get up there? You're taller than I am, but even standing on the cushions you couldn't reach it."  
  
"I know. That's the drawback." He bit down on his lip and looked her over shrewdly. "How much do you weigh?"  
  
She lifted an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"  
  
"I was thinking that if you sit on my shoulders, you'd be able to reach it easily."   
  
She followed his eyes again and mentally measured the distance. He was right; she could reach it if she sat on his shoulders. "Well...I suppose that would work..."  
  
Draco bent down on his knees suddenly and looked up at her through the white-blonde curtain of his hair. "Sit on my shoulders and brace your hands on the wall. I'll stand and take you with me." She was surprised and couldn't hide the expression that crossed her face. "What?"  
  
"Well...I'm just not used to seeing Draco Malfoy rolling in the dirt."  
  
"Obviously never been in a Care of Magical Creatures class with me. That smelly oaf Hagrid--"  
  
"And you were doing so well pretending to be a human being," Ginny sighed, shaking her head. "Can't you be nice for one moment?"  
  
Draco smiled. "Never. Nice doesn't suit me."  
  
"You'd be surprised. You were being nice to me a few moments ago," she pointed out, tossing her hair out of her face.   
  
"No I wasn't. I was wheedling my way into your good graces so that you would help me get out of here," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm only being nice to gain advantage."  
  
Ginny glared at him. "Figures. Foolish of me to think otherwise."  
  
"Yes it was." Draco glared just as coldly. "Now get on my shoulders so we won't ever have to spend quality time alone again."  
  
"My pleasure," she spat, hitching up her robes and straddling his shoulders, his head between her thighs. Anger kept her from being embarrassed. Slowly they lurched upward, her hand steadying them on the wall. Finally they were upright, their cast shadows on the dingy walls like a freakishly tall four-armed beast.   
  
"Now press the stones as hard as you can and hurry it up...you're not as light as you look," Malfoy grunted, trying to keep his balance as Ginny lifted her arms and pushed with her palms as hard as she could on the ceiling. Nothing budged.   
  
They moved on, walking carefully around the room, Ginny pushing as hard as she could to no avail and Draco staggering beneath her, trying to keep her steady. Finally they ran out of stones to press and Ginny sighed.   
  
"Its no use, Malfoy. Let me down," she demanded, looking down at the top of his head, his hands clutching her knees.   
  
"Fine," he said and then he pitched her backward. She screamed as she flew through the air, and then landed on the cushions with a groan.   
  
"Arse," she grumbled, picking herself up and tugging her skirt down over her thighs to hide them from his view. He looked away and smacked the wall with the palm of his fist.  
  
"This makes no damned sense! Why would it say there was a secret in the stones if there isn't one?" He shook his head as if in defeat.   
  
"Well getting mad about it won't help anything!"   
  
"Don't make me hit you," he snapped offhandedly, hitting the wall again.   
  
"As if you would."  
  
"Would so."  
  
"Girl-hitter."  
  
"Shut up Weasley."  
  
"Shut up Malfoy."  
  
"Don't make me stuff you in the privy," he threatened, wheeling on her with a smile on his face.   
  
"Ha! I wouldn't fit!" she declared triumphantly, jumping to her feet to face him.   
  
"I'd make you fit, believe that!" He glared down at her, his nostrils flaring, lips twitching..   
  
"Then who would help you get out?" she hissed through her teeth, smiling too.   
  
"I don't know...Saint Potter would probably come swooping in here on his Firebolt and save you like he always does..." he mused aloud.  
  
"He does not! He only saved me once!"  
  
"Right...I remember now...he let Longbottom try and save you from the Inquisitorial Squad last year," he sneered down at her, pushing her in the shoulder with one finger. "I was amused by that for quite a while."  
  
"Until I hexed you with flying bogies. If I remember correctly, you screamed like a girl and ran!" she exclaimed, smiling fondly at the memory, which was one of her best ever.   
  
Draco glared at her and she smiled cheekily, glad to see she'd gotten to him, even just a little bit. "Think you're clever do you?"  
  
"I know I am," she said, sticking her tongue out at him. "So, are we going to keep up the witty banter or attempt to free ourselves? Right now I'd be up for either one."  
  
"As charming as exchanging wits with you is, I'd like nothing more than to get out of here. And find a bathroom." He mumbled the last part under his breath and flushed high in his cheeks. She smiled even wider.  
  
"Well there is the privy over there..." She gestured to said hole with a wave of her hand and he grimaced.   
  
"Not with you in the room!"   
  
"Then I'm afraid you'll have to hold it until we get out of here." She shrugged and sat down on the cushions, thinking longingly of a nice clean toilet herself. If they didn't get out of there soon, she might just have to stoop so low. She prayed it wouldn't come to that though. "So, we've tried the stones...what about magic?"  
  
"The light spell didn't work though," he pointed out, pacing again, his hands clasped behind his back. She watched him thoughtfully.   
  
"But it couldn't hurt to try again, surely?" she said, pulling out her wand and tapping it against her palm. He chewed on his lower lip and then pulled his out too.   
  
"I suppose not. Unlocking spells would work in theory..." his voice trailed off as he scrunched up his brow and then lifted his wand. "Alohamora!"   
  
Nothing. Ginny tried a door-opening spell next, and then when that didn't work, Draco attempted a complicated portal spell. Nothing worked. They went through each and every spell they could remember and nothing changed. No stone moved and the mysterious torch continued to burn unchanged.   
  
"Well that was a waste of time," Ginny said gloomily, tucking her wand back into the inner pocket of her robes. "If only my stupid brothers had told me about this place..."  
  
Draco read the engraving aloud for the millionth time, chewing his lip in thought. "Maybe its magic, what's in the stones? Maybe we've been going about this all wrong and it's not physical..."  
  
"But magic didn't work..." she complained in a sullen voice.  
  
"No, not wand magic, but what about magic words? We use them all the time, like the passwords for the dormitories and other places! What if that's the answer?"  
  
"Good idea!"  
  
So they both started saying as many magic words as they could remember until they were both certain they were making words up in their desperation. Another hour passed. They paced and fretted, growing more and more irritable, if that were possible.   
  
Draco kept stealing glances at her, chewing on his lip until it was raw and red looking. Ginny's nose was cold and it ran slightly. She wiped it discreetly on one of the cushions while he was looking the other way. Ginny sat down again, her ankle killing her and her bladder full to bursting, making her uncomfortable. The cold didn't help and the pressure grew increasingly worse as she shivered and shook.   
  
Finally she couldn't take it anymore. "I have to use the loo or I'm going to burst," she said, resolutely telling herself not to be embarrassed. Draco wheeled on her.   
  
"You're not going in...in HERE! No way!"  
  
"Yes way, Malfoy! I had a goblet of pumpkin juice at dinner and I can't hold it any longer!" Ginny said as she stood and hopped over to the privy pit corner. Draco caught her wrist in his hand, spinning her around.   
  
"Not with me in here! I forbid it!" he hissed down at her, his cheeks bright red. "I can hold it and so can you!"  
  
"You can hold whatever you want, but I'm going right now!" she shouted in a tone of voice that brooked no arguments. He paled and let go.   
  
"And what am I going to do while you go?"  
  
"You're going to sit in the corner, cover your ears and look away! And feel free to hum really, really loudly!" she spat, pointing toward the corner. He hesitated, as if not believing what was transpiring, then marched to the cushions and sat down with his back to her. "Ears!"  
  
He covered his ears immediately and she took a deep breath, and then turned to the hole in the corner. It still smelled horrible, though there was nothing actually inside it that she could see. She had the awful image of a spider crawling out of it and...  
  
Well, it was best not to think of that. She steeled herself and pulled her knickers down, and then crouched over the pit, bracing her feet on either side, her shoulders butted against the join of the walls. She glanced at Malfoy and saw he still had his back turned to her and his hands over his ears.   
  
"Are you finished yet?" he called suddenly.  
  
"NO!" she shrieked, afraid he'd turn around.  
  
"What's taking so long?"  
  
"I can't go with you...listening! I told you to hum or sing or something..." she said in a high-pitched voice, her cheeks flushing bright red. Draco sighed and then started singing a song she knew was meant to annoy her. His voice was clear and soothing as the strains of "Weasley is Our King" filled the tiny room. She rolled her eyes, relaxed and let go.  
  
When she was finished, she got everything back into place, grimaced at the lack of toilet tissue or water to wash her hands with and tapped Draco on the shoulder. He stopped in mid-chorus and looked at her warily.   
  
"There, it wasn't so bad."  
  
"For you, maybe," he grumbled and turned around to face her, his legs crossed beneath him. He leaned back against the wall and watched her from beneath his pale blonde eyelashes, his lips pursed. She blushed.  
  
"What?" He didn't reply. "What?" He lifted one eyebrow. "Stop it!"  
  
"Stop what?"  
  
"Looking at me like that," she responded, lying down on her side on the cushions, her head on upraised palm. "You have thoughtful face. What are you thinking about?"  
  
"Nothing in particular, really. What are you thinking about?"  
  
"Getting out of here, of course. We've been in here a while..."  
  
"Not so long as your brothers yet...we'll be fine," he told her in a soothing tone that surprised her.  
  
"Are you trying to make me feel better, Malfoy?" she asked, her eyebrows rising. He smiled lazily and tilted his head to the ceiling.  
  
"I confirm no such thing, Weasley," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked up at the engraving again. "Well, we've tried everything. Spells, words and trying to push our way out...we're out of options."  
  
"I'm too tired to care," she said in a monotone voice, shifting position so that she was lying on her back, looking at the impenetrable stone ceiling.  
  
"At least you got to sleep for a while," Draco retorted, poking her in the hip with the toe of one shoe. She glanced at him and then back up at the ceiling.   
  
"And whose fault is that?" she said with a slight smile and he chuckled dryly.   
  
"Point taken, Red."  
  
They both went quiet again and Ginny mulled over the engraving in her head, turning over the sentences in her mind and mouthing them, as if that would unlock the secret for her. Her eyelids drooped again and she fought sleep. Suddenly Draco broke the silence with a strained voice.  
  
"Close your ears and sing something."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I can't hold it any longer," he sniffed, scooting off the cushions. She laughed, but stopped when he shot her a dirty look. "Do it."  
  
She immediately closed her eyes and clapped her hands over her ears and, taking a cue from Malfoy, she started singing her own song. Only it wasn't "Weasley is Our King".   
  
"Malfoy, Malfoy, what a boy! He can have any witch; just watch him miss the Golden Snitch! He's always number two, Potter makes him look like a fool!" She kept on singing it when she felt the cushions depress with Draco's weight. She finished her impromptu song, her eyes shut, her voice ringing off the stone and muffled by her hands. "Draco is a stupid git, he can't play Quidditch for shi--"  
  
A cushion hitting her atop the head promptly cut off her song. Her eyes snapped open and Draco laughed at her deep in his throat. She just stared at him for a moment as he grinned.  
  
"Brat."  
  
She immediately snatched up one of the smaller cushions and bashed him over the head with it. He reeled and whacked at her again as she laughed. They slapped at each other with the musty cushions, rising up a cloud of dust with each hit. She coughed and ducked a blow, then hit him in the stomach with hers. He caught her wrist in his hand and pushed her down, pinning her beneath him.  
  
She laughed and tried to get free, his face hovering above hers, his grin wide and white. She let go of her cushion and tried to move her arms.   
  
"No fair...you're bigger than me!"   
  
But Draco didn't respond. His gray eyes were on her lips and before she had time to register it, his mouth descended on hers. He kissed her hard, his lips clamped not so gently over hers, tugging, his teeth scraping and nibbling. Confusion burst through her head.   
  
She wrenched her hands free and pushed on his shoulders, but he wouldn't give. She pushed harder, fighting the urge to kiss him back until finally she broke free, sucking in a lungful of air. Her eyes widened as he dipped his head to kiss her again and she pushed him away as hard as she could.   
  
"What?" he asked, bewildered. She flushed a deep red.   
  
"Uh...Draco...I don't...we hate each other, remember?"   
  
He shrugged and slid his hand into her hair like he had before, making her shiver beneath him. "So?"  
  
"SO? What in the world are you even thinking? We're stuck in here and you want to SNOG? ME? I'm a Weasley! You hate me just on principal! I was in the Ministry when your father was taken into custody! Gryffindor. Slytherin. Mortal enem--"  
  
He kissed her again; his hand twisted in her hair, desperate like he'd wanted to do it all night. His kiss was just as rough and selfish as before, but this time she returned it despite herself. His lips were cool, but his tongue was warm as it darted against her mouth. He stole her breath, her heart thumping in her chest. She broke off again, desperate for air, but he claimed her mouth again, pushing her back on the cushions, his body covering her like a warm blanket.   
  
She couldn't think. Couldn't get one single thought through her confusion. Draco kissed her again and again and she returned each one, growing more terrified as the minutes wore on. The hand not wrapped possessively in her hair was roaming over her body, touching and sliding beneath clothing, his long fingers plucking at her shirt buttons, attempting to get them open.  
  
"Draco...Draco stop!" she gasped when she felt the first two buttons give, the cold air hitting her exposed skin with an arctic blast. He muttered something against her lips and slid two fingers inside her shirt and over the swell of one breast. She tensed beneath him and shook her head to get rid of the confusion. "Draco!"  
  
He looked up with a lop-sided smile on his face, his eyes half-mast and heavy lidded. "What?"  
  
"I'm not sure what you think is going to happen here...but I don't...I'm a...I never..." she fumbled, trying to get her mouth to form the right words. It came out a garbled mess and she drew in a sharp breath, her lungs expanding against the pressure of his chest atop hers.   
  
"That's okay...I don't mind..." He dipped his head to kiss her again and she jerked her head to the side so that his mouth landed on her cheek. He didn't seem to mind though and she felt chills rise from the slow and steady trail of his mouth on her skin.   
  
"Well I do!" she protested breathlessly, pushing on his shoulders again. He moaned a little and she began to panic. This was definitely not something she'd seen coming. His assault on her was rough and bewildering. She sat up quickly, scooting away as far as she could go, her cheeks burning with color. "We can't..."  
  
"Who's here to see? To hear? Not even Filch can get into this place! Its perfect!" he said, crawling his way toward her on all fours. She backed up against the wall, barely registering the icy stone as it connected with her back. He blocked her way off the cushions and into the rest of the tiny room. There was no use in even trying to run. Where would she go?  
  
She steadied herself and glared at him. "Perfect for what?"  
  
"Don't be so naive, Weasley!" he said in a mocking tone, grabbing her ankles firmly in his hands. Pain exploded through her system. "You know what I want..."  
  
"You're not...not serious are you?" She could hardly believe what he was implying. If he thought she was going to...with him in a dirty hole in the ground! The idea was laughable.   
  
"Deadly serious, Ginny," he said in a whisper, his eyes cold and hungry as they roved over her face. She shrank away from him, wincing as she jerked her sore, swollen ankle out of his grip.   
  
"And so am I. No. Whatever you're thinking, no."  
  
"You don't mean that..."  
  
"I really do, Malfoy. I don't like you...in any way. At all. You're a horrid person!" she said with a grimace as his expression grew colder at her words. He looked over and sneered.  
  
"You're right. What was I thinking? I thought you were mature and you're just a little girl." He laughed as he said it and then he climbed off the cushions, leaving her shaking and confused once more, though anger followed shortly.  
  
"Insult me, I don't care. Just don't touch me again...you hurt me a little..."  
  
"Good. You deserve it. I should hurt you more..."   
  
"Then why don't you?"  
  
"Because I can't," he said. "I can't do it. I want to and I can't."  
  
She looked him over worriedly. "Why not?" she demanded.  
  
"I've told you. Dumbledore and the other teachers would know. I can't risk my future for you."  
  
"Lucky for me then."  
  
"You have no idea."  
  
"What's wrong with you Draco?" Ginny asked him softly, climbing off the cushions. She stood and buttoned her blouse again. "You're nice to me one moment and then you threaten me...I can't figure you out."  
  
"I've not been nice to you. I've manipulated you, remember? Never forget that," he said darkly, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. She frowned.  
  
"Manipulating me for what?"  
  
"Nevermind, Weasley. It's not important. You don't matter to me. And that's final."   
  
She studied him for a long moment and then sighed, deciding to let it go. "Fine. Let's just concentrate on getting out of this place, okay?"  
  
"Yeah, good idea," Draco said sullenly, running a hand through his tousled hair and avoiding her eyes. Her lips felt swollen from his selfish kisses and she touched them gently with the tip of one finger. Catching herself, she stopped and then looked up at the engraving once more.   
  
"What I don't understand is why Hogwarts has an oubliette in the first place."  
  
"There are all sorts of strange places in this school. Obviously one of the founders thought this place was a clever idea and built it," Draco shrugged, pacing the floor once more. He stole glances at her every few seconds, his shoulders rigid.   
  
"Like the Chamber of Secrets! How Salazar Slytherin kept that huge room a secret I'll never know," Ginny said, looking away from the pacing Draco, glad they were once again working on a way to get out of the room.   
  
"Slytherin was a clever man. I shouldn't wonder he kept it secret from the others that helped him found the school; they had no vision," Draco snorted derisively, leaning against the wall. He looked thoughtful. "Bit like that Room of Requirement you and Potter used for your DA club last year, you could say."  
  
"The problem there is, neither of us required being stuck in a great smelly hole in the school!"  
  
Draco looked her over, a look in his eye as if he were debating whether or not to tell her something. "Well, one of us did..." he finally said in a heavy, defeated voice.  
  
"What?" Ginny asked in confusion.   
  
"Well, I've been, er, thinking and the engraving says an oubliette is where things are put and forgotten. You said you wanted everyone to leave you alone when I followed you, right?"  
  
Ginny looked at him suspiciously, the fog over her mind drifting apart. She glanced at the engraving. The meaning seemed to become clearer to her. "Yes...I did say that. It was odd though, I was at dinner and I'd had a horrid day...but I didn't want to be alone..."  
  
She trailed off in thought, realizing just how strange her turning up in the odd, circular room had been.  
  
"Oh, well maybe you did and you just didn't realize it?" Draco said in a nervous voice. She eyed him once more and then shrugged.  
  
"Its possible, I suppose. But what has that got to do with the oubliette?"  
  
"I think this place is a lot like the Room of Requirement. Maybe you can only get into it when you don't want to be found? Or at a certain time of night?"  
  
"All possible, but what has that got to do with getting out?" Ginny said exasperatedly, wringing her hands.  
  
"Well, if you can get in by not being found, then perhaps you can get out by wanting the opposite?" Draco said in an obvious voice, gesturing to her.   
  
"If that's true, then most people would be out as soon as they'd gotten in!" she said, gesturing to the scratched names, dates and hours on the walls.   
  
"In theory, but have you been thinking of getting out or getting found?"  
  
"Of course!"  
  
Draco lifted an eyebrow at her and she bit her lip. She thought for a moment, and then realized she hadn't thought of it. She'd thought of getting out, yes, but she'd been trying to figure out the riddle. They'd tried the stones, but nothing had happened. She hadn't been thinking about wanting to be found at all, as she thought no one would find them because they didn't know where they were and the painting upstairs couldn't race off to tell anyone.   
  
It all made perfect sense! Or at least she thought it did...  
  
"The riddle on the wall...it's meant to confuse you!"  
  
"That's what I'm beginning to think. But here, see it says, 'escape is but a thought away'. Its not lying, it just doesn't give you a clue what the thought is," Draco said wearily, pointing to the wall again. "Pretty clever. I wouldn't doubt it if this were Rowena Ravenclaw's addition to the school. It's certainly tricky enough."  
  
"How do you know so much all of a sudden?" Ginny asked him, hands on her hips. He shrugged once more.   
  
"I don't. But seven hours in here will give you enlightenment and time to think." His was sullen and Ginny wondered why. They were finally going to get out of here!  
  
"So...if we think we've figured it out, why are we still stuck?"  
  
"I've figured it out, but you have to want to be found, since you're the one who triggered the thing in the first place."   
  
Ginny frowned. "Oh, well in that case..." she trailed off as she squeezed her eyes shut, intending to think long and hard about getting out.   
  
Hands were suddenly on her shoulders. She opened her eyes to look at Draco. He looked very unhappy.  
  
"Are you sure you want out?"  
  
She was confused. "Don't you?"  
  
"Yes, but don't you want to stay for a while? Its safe..." He had that wheedling tone in his voice again that made her suspicious.  
  
"No its not. I don't know what you're thinking, Malfoy, but I want out of here. And I don't want to be around you any longer," she said in a stern voice, sure that she was warning him of something. What that something was, she couldn't say. He made her uncomfortable though, like he had expected something and was now very disappointed and was giving up.   
  
"As if I want to be around you, either?" He turned cold in an instant, his eyes narrowing into slits. He let go of her shoulders and walked across the tiny room to kick the wall in anger. He did again and again, making her jump and stare at him.  
  
"Draco! Stop it!" she shouted, grabbing his arm and pulling him around to face her. He glared down at her, his shoulder heaving up and down in his fury. "What's the matter?"  
  
"Nothing. Just get us out of here. I can't stand you a moment longer." He wrenched his arm out of her hands and leaned sullenly against the wall.   
  
"Fine." And with that she closed her eyes and thought hard about being found. I want to be found. I don't want to be in here any longer. I don't want to be forgotten. Let me out. There is no secret in the stones.   
  
She thought of everything she could think of. Even asking for Harry and Ron to come and find her. She opened her eyes after a long moment and then looked at the ceiling. She half expected it to open up, but was surprised when it remained unchanged.  
  
"Finished?" Draco asked in a resentful voice.  
  
"I don't think it--" She stopped in mid-sentence as the stones above her gave grated together and a hole opened up directly in the middle of the room. There was a squeak of rusty metal and then a ladder descended with a clang in front of her. It led upward and out. "It worked! I can't believe it! It was so simple."  
  
"Lovely. Now start climbing. I have class in a few hours and I'd like to at least get a shower to wash the stink of this place away," Draco said, pushing her out of the way as she reached for the ladder. He climbed up swiftly, disappearing into the escape hole without so much as a goodbye. Ginny frowned and started to climb up, but stopped and hopped down.  
  
She looked around and found a jagged piece of stone on the floor. She found Fred and George's inscription on the wall and beside it, she wrote:  
  
Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy, 1996, 7 hours  
  
She smiled and looked around the tiny room, the oubliette, and then up at the ladder. Something very odd had happened tonight and she wasn't sure what that was. Draco Malfoy had been almost bearable. He'd kissed her and even thinking about it made her stomach flip-flop. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not though. He couldn't like her...she'd just been convenient...  
  
With a shrug, she dropped the sharp stone and climbed the ladder a quickly as her ankle would allow her. The hole opened up into the round room again and she breathed deeply, feeling the warmer air of the heated castle envelope her. She pulled herself up the whole way and stood, looking down at the dark, deep hole as it closed up once more. Carefully she stepped away from it and looked around the room.   
  
Draco was nowhere to be found. She hadn't really expected him to wait for her, but she felt slightly disappointed. The painting of the maiden on the rocks waved at her and smiled.   
  
"Figured it out, did you?"  
  
"Yes...where did Draco go?" Ginny asked her as she stepped up to the painting. She shrugged as best she could through the chains criss-crossing her body, strapping her to the rocks.   
  
"He went in that direction." She gestured with her chin at the doorway opposite the painting and frowned. "He's always rude to me though."  
  
Ginny furrowed her brow. "Does he come through here often?"  
  
"Past month he's gone down into the oubliette several times. Odd fellow." Ginny's mouth fell open. Draco had been there before? But...  
  
Nothing made sense. She looked back to the center of the odd room, where the opening was. What did this mean?  
  
****  
  
The Slytherin common room was warm and empty but for two people. Crabbe and Goyle looked up from the game of Gobstones they were both mucking through as the entry portal opened and a lithe figure sauntered inside.  
  
Goyle smiled. "How did it go?"  
  
"Yeah, did it work?" Crabbe asked, knocking over the Gobstones as Draco sat down wearily in a plush, red velvet chair near the fire. Draco's face was dark and motionless. "Draco?"  
  
"The Befuddlement Charm worked exactly like I thought it would. She had no idea where she was or why until I got her into the oubliette..."  
  
"And?" Goyle pressed, leaning closer to hear every juicy word. Draco shot him a deadly glare, making him shrink backward. Draco seemed to contemplate his two companions for a moment and then he smiled and leaned back, regaining his prideful swagger.  
  
"And she's got a lot to learn, but I taught her a few things," he said with a lop-sided snigger, then leaned forward, inventing salacious details that his dim-witted friends drank up like warm butterbeer.   
  
"Why her though?" Crabbe asked, his low brown furrowing, his tiny brown eyes screwing up.  
  
"Because I could, Crabbe," Draco spat at his hulking friend, leaning back in his comfortable chair. "She flaunts herself all over the school like she owns it. She's Muggle-loving filth and I won't stand for it." His expression grew dark. "Most of all, she doesn't even know it. She has no idea what she does to me! She's SO sweet and innocent that it makes me sick."  
  
Crabbe and Goyle exchanged looks. "But did you teach her a lesson?"  
  
Draco's attention snapped to Goyle. Something flickered in his eyes. "No. But I will. She can't refuse me and get away with it. "  
  
"But I thought you said you'd..." Goyle said in confusion, but Draco sneered at him.  
  
"Don't think. You'll only hurt yourself. Just believe me when I say this isn't over. No, Ginny Weasley still has it coming to her. I'm not finished. She can't treat me like that..." he trailed off, staring into the fire, obsession burning in his eyes. An obsession that had been there since last spring and had only gotten worse with time.   
  
Crabbe and Goyle sat back in silence as Draco brooded.   
  
No, Ginny Weasley had no idea what was in store for her. Things had not gone the way Draco had wanted in the oubliette. He'd intended to hurt her, oh yes hurt her and make her pay for what she'd done. But he hadn't. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a handful of burning red hairs he'd pulled from her head while she'd slept. They reflected the firelight, shimmering in his fist like blood.   
  
Draco Malfoy smiled. This wasn't over.  
  
(end)  
  
**** 


End file.
